Japanese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "自分" in Japanese?

Q: How do you pronounce 自分 in Japanese?

自分 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dʑi.bɯɴ/. It means “oneself / one's own.” ji-bu-n, three beats — a soft palatal j and a closing nasal that takes a whole count.

ji-bu-n, three beats — a soft palatal j and a closing nasal that takes a whole count.

自分 /dʑi.bɯɴ/

jibun

Three slots, the last with no vowel in it. English delivers two syllables here and loses a third of the word's length. The fix is unglamorous: hum the closing nasal deliberately, giving it as much time as the ji or the bu.

Listen: 自分

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Sound it out

ji A voiced affricate formed with the tongue blade broadly against the palate, lighter than English j, followed by a short tense i.

bu A clean b into the unrounded u. The lips close for the consonant and must then spread, not stay pursed.

n A full beat of nasal. At the end of a word it's produced far back with the mouth still open, so it resonates rather than snapping shut.

Hear it in a sentence

自分の部屋で勉強します。

Jibun no heya de benkyou shimasu.

I study in my own room.

Listen: 自分の部屋で勉強します。

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自分の部屋で勉強します contains 勉強 (be-n-kyo-o), four morae with a nasal beat and a long vowel, and 部屋 (he-ya) with two short ones. The sentence therefore has two moraic nasals plus a held vowel — three beats that English intuition would not count at all.

Where English speakers slip

"JEE-boon" is the standard English rendering: a hard j, a stretched stressed first vowel, rounded lips on the u, and the nasal reduced to a closing consonant. Soften the j to a blade articulation, halve the i, spread the lips, and hold the ん for its own beat.